Extreme limits of diatom-enabled two-phase thermal management
Abstract
Massachusetts Institute of Technology propose a fundamental study to investigate the extreme limits of phase change-based heat transfer in diatom-derived (bio-enabled) three-dimensional (3-D) hierarchically-structured evaporators for the development of advanced thermal management strategies. Thermal management is a severe challenge for high performance electronics, such as GaN and Ga2O3 high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). To address this significant bottleneck, we propose a novel bio-enabled approach leveraging the naturally-occurring hierarchy of the microshells (frustules) of diatoms to enable thermal management devices that can advance phase-change towards its fundamental limit. Diatoms are single-celled microalgae that generate intricate 3-D mechanically robust SiO2 frustules with species-specific (genetically-controlled) microscale shapes and patterned micro-to-nanoscale (101 to 103 nm) pore arrays. Prior work has shown that such SiO2 structures can be converted into high-fidelity 3-D Si (and other) replicas via the use of shape preserving gas-solid reactions. Compared to state-of-the-art thermal management structures, such bio-enabled designs can simultaneously enable optimum heat dissipation and demonstrate superior robustness, due to the structural hierarchy of the diatom frustules, allowing for the probing of thermal management under extreme conditions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 29, 2024
- Source ID
- FA95502310055
Entities
People
- Lenan Zhang
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- United States Air Force